Hunters should see good whitetail numbers

The general firearm hunting season opens Saturday for deer and elk and runs through Nov. 29. It should be a good year for hunters, as most game species in Northwest Montana have rebounded from a bad winter in 2010-11, said Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Region One Wildlife Manager Neal Anderson.

“Whitetails are doing well,” Anderson said last week. “(Populations) have been building up the last four to five years.”

He said there should be some older age class bucks in the woods this season in the 3-to 4-year-old range.

“Patient hunters could find a little bit better buck,” he said.

Elk hunters will find better populations in the Eureka and Thompson Falls areas, but mule deer numbers continue to be down. The Eureka area had a break out of blue tongue disease which killed some whitetails, but the disease, which is a virus carried by midges, isn’t widespread in Northwest Montana.

If a hunter harvests a whitetail with the disease, the meat is still fit for consumption, Anderson noted. But most deer who get the illness are very sick and wouldn’t likely be harvested anyway. It is not spread to humans.

There are no major changes in regulations this year. Most of the districts in the region require hunters harvest antlered bucks or brow-tined or bigger elk, though there are exceptions. Hunters should check their regulations carefully before going afield. Hunters should also be careful with campfires. The area is in a drought and is still very dry. Hunters are also encouraged to carry bear spray as an effective and safe deterrent for grizzly bear encounters. Nearly every hunting season a hunter has a grizzly encounter and the ones that use bear spray generally come out better than those that don’t. A bowhunter earlier this year was attacked by a grizzly the hunter surprised near Choteau. The bear bit him and the hunter escaped after he shoved his arm down the bear’s throat and the bear let go of him.

The drought could change some game patterns, but Northwest Montana has so many small streams and water bodies, game won’t be making large-scale adjustments, Anderson said, but if one area is greener than another, there’s probably going to be game in the green.

Wolf populations are down over previous years, though there’s still plenty of packs in Northwest Montana, Anderson said.